


Grophet's Gambit - Waiting

by DancingHare



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 01:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14297514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DancingHare/pseuds/DancingHare
Summary: The calm before the storm.





	Grophet's Gambit - Waiting

From her vantage point at the top of the tower, Kazta could see far out over the dunes, wavy and shimmering in the mid-day heat. Her patrol that morning had turned up nothing, as they had the past several days. She felt frustrated and restless; though she knew they were making progress, it was slow and lurching. In the meantime, they were a tempting target — the sith was aware of their presence here now. If the jedi could sense him, surely the sith could sense the jedi as well. And no doubt the rest of the Imperial operation had been made aware of their efforts to thwart them, either by the Hutt whose compound they had raided, or the loss of some of their slaves. It would be a simple matter to stage an attack against the homestead, and while the walls would provide some protection, they had little in the way of armor or munitions, nor any defensive turrets or towers. The Imps could just as well walk right in.

She thought tomorrow she might ask the new recruit to join her. He claimed to be skilled with a blaster, and he was sensible and blunt. Kazta had taken a liking to him right away for that reason, and more importantly, he understood the value of vigilance. And while he was reluctant to talk too much about his past, that didn’t matter much to Kazta. She didn’t need to know every detail, just that he could have her back when it was important. He didn’t have any armor, if he was going to be outside of the walls he’d need some manner of protection. They’d first found him in the fleet, Kazta had gone with Shani to secure some supplies and she’d later found the twi’lek sharing drinks with a human male. Though Kazta thought that Shani was trying to recruit him to their cause, Shani kept dropping suggestions that Kazta should talk to him. She did, but she had no interest in anything else he might have to offer, especially once she learned more about him. They both started in on that nonsense about wearing different clothes, a subject that Kazta was rapidly tiring of. She was accustomed to her armor, and she felt prepared for anything that might happen. Kazta just didn’t see the point of leaving herself exposed to attack and revealing herself to anyone who might be around. Maybe that was what some people wanted, but not her. Pri’kinth later joined them, and offered his skills to the crew. Shani agreed to take him on, and he went back on the shuttle with them to the homestead.

At some point, they’d need to find another ship. Pri’kinth suggested at first that Kazta could request one — which she had, already. Without any concrete results, the Republic army was reluctant to allow any more personnel or equipment than it already had. The mission wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that they usually funded, either. Kif’s ship was probably not far off, though Kazta didn’t know what sort of shape it was in — he’d still not told her what happened that night he had snuck off in the dark. Pri’kinth suggested stealing one from the spaceport, which was a terrible idea, but if the situation got desperate enough, it might have some merit. Stealing from Imperials wouldn’t really count as stealing, would it? Especially if its holds were loaded with slaves they’d just freed. Kazta still held out hope that Ginnus would return, though. She found it impossible to believe that he would just leave everyone and everything behind without so much as a word. As far as she knew, he hadn’t called anyone. Maybe he just had some soul searching to do.


End file.
